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Backlogging and based entirely on my memory

Experience buying from Sanctuary T http://steepster.com/places/2940-sanctuary-t-online-new-york-new-york?visit=1642

Date of Purchase/Age of Leaf/Date of Steeping/Frequency Drank: Bought at the end of 2011; no harvest date provided on website; started drinking it almost daily from February 2011 to some time in April of 2011.

Appearance and Aroma of dry leaf: About the same of the other two Gyokuros I’ve tried: small, dark green leaves that look almost like leaf ‘shavings’; strongly vegetal.

Brewing guidelines: three full TSP dry tea for every six ounces of H2O (this stuff is really dense); glass Bodum pot with metal infuser/plunger; stevia added; my standard Japanese-green times and temperatures; three steepings (I usually brewed the third at 180F for 2 minutes which seemed to work out well, especially when I blended it with a Chinese green tea).

Color and Aroma of tea liquor: A somewhat cloudy bright green color; vegetal/grassy aroma.

Flavor of tea liquor: One of these days I’ll have to sit down and figure out how to describe the difference between ‘grassy’ and ‘vegetal’, but for now let me say that Japanese teas seem to have a flavor profile that differs from Chinese green teas in that they seem to be more grassy—a taste some don’t go for as it comes across a little bolder than Chinese greens do. Although I prefer the taste of Chinese greens, I did like this one: it had a flavor that was about as grassy and sweet as the other two Gyokuros I’ve had.

Appearance and Aroma of wet leaf: Standard ‘grass-clippings’ look, strong grassy/vegetal aroma.

Blends well with: This tea actually blended reasonably-well with a Chinese green on the third steeping.

Value: I bought eight OZ of this at 50% off (making it $25 / 8 OZ); at that price it was worth it to me; but at the regular price I’d much prefer to go with Den’s Tea or some other tea retailer that specializes in Japanese teas.

Overall: As Gyokuro is purported to have a high content of theanine in it, I started using H&S version of this tea as my work-morning green tea last year (2011). When I ran out of the H&S version, I began brewing up this one. It’s been over a month since I finished off the last of it, but overall it was about as good as the H&S version (the H&S version may have been slightly tastier). This tea is not worth it to me for the price, but still I’m glad I had a chance to experience SanctuaryT’s version of Gyokuro.

Backlogging

Experience buying from Adagio http://steepster.com/places/2897-adagio-teas-online-naperville-illinois

Date of Purchase/Amount of Leaf/Age of Leaf/Date of Steeping: in December, 2011, I bought a 14 gram sample; age of leaf not available on website; steeped on 5/19/2012.

Appearance and aroma of dry leaf: mildly vegetal; small, fine, light-and-dark green curly leaves, some broken (lighter in color to another version I tried a day later).

Brewing guidelines: labeled as 14 grams of dry tea, six cups of H2O; glass Bodum six-cup teapot, leaves free to roam; stevia added; (I started the steep times a half-a-minute longer and the temps a little hotter than my normal green tea times and temps as most Bi Lo Chun green teas seem to call for this).
……….1st: 178; 1.5’
……….2nd: 182; 2
……….3rd: 182; 2.5’
……….4th: 185; 3’
……….5th: 188; 4’

Color and aroma of tea liquor: Cloudy, light-yellow color; mild, sweet, vegetal aroma.

Flavor of tea liquor (by steeping):
1st: mild, sweet, good
2nd: had at least as good a flavor as the 1st
3rd: decent flavor
4th: still decent flavor (leaves all on bottom)
5th: mild flavor (clear liquor)

Appearance and aroma of wet leaf: aroma similar to other versions, but not what I would expect from a quality green tea, as although it’s vegetal it has a somewhat stale smell (maybe because this sat in the sample bag for six months from when I bought it? Then again, maybe not …), and something else interesting I can’t place; lots of leaf movement from top to bottom of teapot while steeping, leaves mostly on bottom, lots of broken pieces floating around; wet leaf seems to be of decent quality: many whole leaves, a number of buds, and some pieces and stems.

Value: Currently $7 / 2 OZ. Most Pi Lo Chun (or Bi Lo Chun) is much more expensive (I’ve seen the fresh stuff go for close to $20/OZ, and even higher for organic), so although this price is pretty good, I don’t believe this tea is of a very high grade.

Overall:
At the end of 2011 I bought four samples from Adagio (all green teas), and this is the last of that bunch. In general, I have found their green teas to be of average quality with a commensurate price.

I have had at least five different Bi Lo Chun (Pi Lo Chun) green teas at this point, and I judge this one to be a pale comparison to the real thing; it’s decent tasting and worth drinking, but nothing stands out about it. Still, it seems to embody the basics of appearance, taste and aroma that the other versions had; as the saying goes, you get what you pay for. I’m on the lookout for a Bi Lo Chun of better quality, and I’m willing to pay a little more for it (not more than $5 / OZ), since, as a style of tea, Bi Lo Chun is one of the best green teas I’ve ever had (The one from H&S was incredible, but I’m not willing to pay $10/OZ for it). There are currently a few sellers on Taobao (through a Taobao buying agent) that I am very seriously considering buying some of the 2012 harvest from.

Experience buying from Culinary Teas http://steepster.com/places/2981-culinary-teas-online-milford-indiana

I bought a one-ounce sample of this in late November, 2011, having brewed it twice.

Appearance and Aroma of dry leaf: about the same as the rest of the flavor-added black teas from Culinary Teas: medium grade CTC leaf, strong aroma.

Brewing guidelines: four good-sized TSP, four cups H2O; loose in four-cup ceramic teapot; stevia added; my standard black tea steeping times and temperatures; two steeping sessions (months apart); three steepings each session.

Flavor of tea liquor (derived primarily from latest session):
1st: strong, but bitter
2nd: no bitterness, but relatively weak on flavor
3rd: weak

Color and aroma of tea liquor: I liked both the amber color and the mildly fruity aroma.

Appearance and Aroma of wet leaf: Mid-grade CTC leaf, with a very small amount of flavoring bits; fitting aroma for the flavor it is meant to imitate.

Value: Culinary flavor-added tea’s are generally very reasonably priced: this one is $8.15 / 4 OZ, which puts it at about $2 / OZ (and even less with any discounts and/or if you buy it in larger quantities).

Overall: I bought a bunch of samples of flavor-added black teas at the end of last year for my wife to try. My niece was with us this morning, and we all seemed to agree that the 1st steeping was unpleasantly bitter, and the 2nd, weak. I am currently drinking the third steeping (boiling, 7 minutes), and although there is some raspberry flavor there, it’s very light. I will say it doesn’t taste artificial (as it seems many inexpensive flavor-added teas can taste). I also remember being disappointed in the flavor the first time we tried this. That’s the end of this sample, and as much as we wanted to like this one—my wife loves raspberry flavored sweets, as does my niece—it just isn’t doing it for us; I don’t see us buying this one again.

Backlogging and based entirely on my notes

Experience buying from The Puritea http://steepster.com/places/2885-thepuritea-online-los-angeles-california

Date of Purchase/Amount of Leaf/Date of Steeping: Bought during their Black Friday sale near the end of 2011; 3 – 4 TSP sample; steeped once on 1-29-2012.

Appearance and Aroma of dry leaf: No discernible aroma; standard look for an Assam.

Brewing guidelines: < No information noted on teapot used >; stevia added; my standard Chinese red tea steeping times and temperatures; four steepings.

Color and Aroma of tea liquor: Malty aroma, dark amber color.

Flavor of tea liquor (by steeping):
1st: sweet, malty flavor
2nd: good
3rd: still good
4th: decent, but not enough to attempt a 5th

Appearance and aroma of wet leaf: Standard mid-grade CTC leaf; malty.

Value: $2 for the sample (no more than 4 TSP): I find that to be very pricy for a small sample; otherwise it’s $12 / 4 OZ.

Overall: I liked it, my wife liked it: a good Assam. As I mention in my review of The Puritea, I was hoping for more Tea in this sample. I don’t think it’s likely I will buy this tea from them again, as there are plenty of Assams that are higher in quality and priced at least as good.

Backlogging, and based entirely on my notes

Experience buying from Teavivre http://steepster.com/places/2857-teavivre-online—

Age of leaf/Date of brewing: advertised as spring 2011; received November 2011, brewed up days later (11/14/2011).

Appearance and aroma of dry leaf: small wiry leaves and buds; smells fresh, slightly smoky.

Brewing guidelines_: loose in glass six-cup Bodum teapot; stevia added; two complete steeping sessions < first / second >
……….1st: 170/180, 1’
……….2nd: 175/175. 1.5
……….3rd: 180/185, 2’
……….4th: 185/< not attempted >, 2.5

Color and aroma of tea liquor: very light green color, very mild vegetal aroma.

Flavor of tea liquor: Mild, but good vegetal green tea taste, with mild smoky undertones; flavor held up well through three steepings: “3rd (steeping): surprisingly tasty!” < this note applied to the second steeping session, steeped at generally higher temperatures than the first >; slight astringency in third cup < from the first steeping session >.

Appearance and aroma of wet leaf: some decent-looking whole leaves, with a number of buds and a few bud sets, yet there were more torn leaves that could be accounted for due to handling; fresh, vegetal aroma which was stronger than the aroma of the liquor itself.

Value: Pretty good as compared with other fresh green teas in its price range: the current price (as of 6/1/12) for the 2012 harvested tea is $11.50 / 100g (3.5oz).

Overall: This review is based entirely on my notes, and I didn’t write much beyond what I have already provided above other than, “A decent tea for the price”. I also noted that my wife preferred this tea when hot (I have personally found that some green teas taste a little better when cooled a bit). I will be trying a sample of the 2012 lot soon, so I am interested to see if there will be any notable differences.

Experience buying from Culinary Teas http://steepster.com/places/2981-culinary-teas-online-milford-indiana

I bought a one OZ sample of this in late November, 2011, having brewed it twice.

Appearance and Aroma of dry leaf: about the same as the rest of the flavor-added black teas from Culinary Teas: medium grade leaf, strong aroma (of cinnamon, in this case).

Brewing guidelines: four TSP, four cups H2O; four-cup ceramic teapot, with ceramic basket; stevia added; my standard Chinese red tea steeping times and temperatures; three steepings.

Flavor of tea liquor: good, and very Cinnamon-y, but otherwise nothing noteable about it.

Value: Culinary flavor-added tea’s are generally very reasonably priced; this one is $8.15 / 4 OZ, which puts it at about $2 / OZ (and even less with any discounts and/or if you buy it in larger quantities).

Overall: I bought a bunch of samples of flavor-added black teas at the end of last year for my wife to try. We both agree that, although this is a reasonably good tasting tea, it’s not one we plan to buy.

Backlogging, and based almost entirely on my notes

Experience buying from Teavivre http://steepster.com/places/2857-teavivre-online—

Age of leaf/date of brewing: advertised as spring 2011. Received fall 2011, brewed up days later.

Appearance and aroma of dry leaf: < No notes here >

Brewing guidelines: 3 small TSP, 2 cups H2O (from my notes it looks like I did two completely separate brewing ‘sessions’ with this tea, one day apart); < I have no notes on what teapot I brewed this in, but I likely used my glass Bodum >; stevia added; standard Chinese green tea steeping times and temperatures; four steepings for the first session, three for the second.

Color of tea liquor: yellowish (“like a lite beer”).

Flavor of tea liquor (by steeping): (based on both sessions) 1st: mild, but good, standard vegetal flavor (no weird or off flavors); 2nd: decent; 3rd: good (notes say “Definitely good: better, sweeter, reminds me of a Dragon Well”); 4th: mild flavor.

Appearance and aroma of wet leaf: looks and smells like any quality, fresh, standard mid-grade green tea: “lots of good buds, many leaves (some torn), and a few stems (no bud-sets).”

Value: again, great value for a decent green tea at Teavivre (my notes show $2.27 / OZ)!

Overall: I don’t have many notes on this tea, but overall I remember (and based on my notes) that this was a decent tasting green tea (I drank it about six months after it’s harvest). I should be getting a sample of a similarly named green tea (Organic Tian Mu Mao Feng) from the 2012 spring harvest, soon, so I’ll be curious to see if I like it any better (they currently list this tea as out of stock, so I don’t know if they plan to get a new harvest of this exact green tea or not).

Backlogging, and based almost entirely on my notes

Experience buying from Teavivre http://steepster.com/places/2857-teavivre-online—

Date of Purchase/Date of Steeping: Received in the fall of 2011 as a free sample (Thank you Angel!), steeped up March 2012.

Appearance and Aroma of dry leaf: Standard keemun leathery-type smell; the tiny somewhat-broken leaves are a uniform dark brown color.

Brewing guidelines: Glass Bodum pot leaf free to roam; stevia added; standard Chinese red tea steeping times and temperatures; four steepings.

Color and Aroma of tea liquor: Clear, light-copper color, with a mild aroma.

Flavor of tea liquor: A little bitter on the first steeping, but it has that characteristic keemun leathery-type taste that I have come to appreciate; second steeping was smooth (so no bitterness) and tasty; third was still flavorful; forth was mild, but still smooth and flavorful.

Appearance of wet leaf: Lots of tiny pieces of tea, such that it looked like large coffee grounds.

Value: This is where this tea really stands out: it’s a great value. I’m a bargain hunter, and I don’t think I could find a decent keemun anywhere better than this price: under $2/OZ.

Overall: I’ve finally got some time to do some backlogging (I don’t like having unfinished business sitting around); I hope to knock out most (if not all) of the teas I have written notes for in the next week or so.

I liked this tea, but my wife didn’t; I think the leathery taste is too weird for her, but that’s exactly why I like keemuns! If you appreciate value, and you like keemun, look no further: this is clearly a tea worth taking a chance on!

Experience buying from Harney & Sons http://steepster.com/places/2779-harney-and-sons-online-millerton-new-york

Date of Purchase/Date of Steeping: Bought sample in December 2011; brewed up late-May 2012.

Appearance and Aroma of dry leaf: strong, wonderfully fruity smell (similar to a Darjeeling?) with a hint of a roasted aroma; small, beautifully curled light and dark brown leaves (similar to a quality Yunnan).

Brewing guidelines: almost 5 full TSP tea for 4 cups water; loose in my new ceramic four-cup teapot; stevia added; I used my standard Chinese red tea steeping times and temperatures, steeped five times.

Color and Aroma of tea liquor: Beautiful, clear dark-red color with a faint malty aroma.

Flavor of tea liquor: Good! Similar to an Assam—it was clearly malty—but with a definite Chinese red tea flavor profile (somewhat like a Yunnan, possibly in its sweetness?). Good flavor up through the third steeping, some on the forth, with just a hint of flavor on the fifth.

Appearance and Aroma of wet leaf: A few largish-looking stems but few broken pieces and plenty of nice buds in the wet leaf; I smelled it just after the first steeping and it had a wonderfully sweet aroma.

Value: $3 for the sample, but otherwise $22 / 3OZ. This is clearly a quality tea, but that price-tag is too steep for me (as in, expensive, that is); there are to be plenty of other teashops that carry quality Chinese red teas for a price better than $7/OZ (but maybe none with precisely this kind of flavor profile, hmm?).

Overall: I spontaneously brewed up this sample today, it being the last in the bunch I bought from H&S toward the end of last year. On a side note: having now had about ten Teas from H&S I have to say I am impressed with their offerings such that every Tea (NOT including their tizanes) I have tried has been of commendable quality. As I mentioned in Value this is clearly a quality Chinese red tea. Strangely enough in color and flavor this tea somewhat reminds me of a red ale I helped to home-brew just a few days ago; I like that. I am not willing to pay the normal price for this tea, but still, I’m glad I had a chance to experience it.

Backlogging from a week ago

Experience Buying from Culinary Teas http://steepster.com/places/2981-culinary-teas-online-milford-indiana

I bought a one OZ sample of this in late November, 2011, and have brewed it once so far.

Appearance and Aroma of Dry Leaf: In the bag it looked dark brown (like a black tea), but when I took some of it out of the bag and looked at it in the sunlight, I could see that it was very dark green leaves with a few white-ish colored leaves here and there (looks more like a yellow tea, as in H&S Yellow Sprout, but with much smaller ‘pieces’); it does at least smell like a fresh green tea: vegetal, almost spicy (again, like H&S YS).

Brewing Guidelines: Six shallow tsp = six cups water; glass Bodum pot, leaf free to roam; stevia added; my standard Chinese-green tea steeping times and temperatures (although I went a little cooler than planned with the last two steepings); four steepings.

Flavor of Tea Liquor: My wife and I both generally liked it; the front-end was mild, but it had a good ‘finish’ (I think that’s what you call the end of the tasting note) in that it had a flavor similar to a fresh spring green on the first steeping. After second and third steepings: (me): “Decent, passable,” (wife): “And not nasty” (my wife calls the taste of some greens ‘nasty,’ so that’s meant to be somewhat of a compliment for the tea). It still had some mild flavor on the forth.

Color of tea liquor: Somewhat cloudy, yellow-green color.

Appearance of Wet Leaf: There was lots of movement of the leaf while steeping; it was mostly chopped bits of leaves with a number of stems.

Value: Good: $7.25 / 4 OZ. Any green tea under $2/OZ that has at least decent flavor through three steepings is notable in my book.

Overall: Again, I bought this as a possible candidate for an inexpensive green tea. And it turns out this one’s a keeper, as in, worth buying the next time we order from Culinary Teas. My wife and I both thought the flavor of this one was reasonable on all four steepings (I am reasonably impressed when I can still get flavor out of the forth for a tea priced below $2/OZ). If we do order a few flavor-added black teas from them this fall, this green will be a good candidate to add to the order to help get our total over $75 for the free shipping (otherwise the shipping can easily cost $7, or higher, as they price by weight).